Context Matters — New Research on Display Ad Effectiveness

Paid Content reports that a new UK study shows how “specialist sites are more effective than general-interest sites for ad delivery.”

73% of specialist site users say they pay attention to ads on those sites. But the news is much different for “large” websites, where just 12 percent of visitors often look at ads.

While the report does not speculate on the reason for this difference, the meaning is clear. Display ads still workâ€¦ if you run them in the right places. As specialist sites rise in importance for every interest from politics to crafting, military history to romance and more, the idea of “mass marketing” becomes less important than reaching the right aggregation of niche sites. As Jeff Jarvis argues in his book, What Would Google Do?, “The mass market is deadâ€”long live the mass of niches.”